Recent reviews by villordsutch

Back in 1987 Irem released a side-scrolling shooter called R-Type upon the arcade houses across the world, and this caused Gaming Waves that are still being felt today. It was a glorious game, with swarms of enemies, bosses so huge and grotesque that they were in fact morbidly beautiful at the same time and you were left physically drained at the end of every level. This game was huge, and when it came to the home computers it shouldn’t have worked, but it did- especially on the ZX Spectrum.

It was Bob Pape that brought R-Type over to the ZX Spectrum under the publishing house Electric Dreams Software, and not to besmirch Bob here but his back catalogue of games on the Spectrum beforehand had nearly all been Educational Software for younger children. Yet Bob made a game that even today is still outstanding. The release and praise of Bob’s R-Type on the ZX Spectrum even spawned a book called It’s Behind You: the making of a computer game, which is available to download for free.

Now here in 2016 we have Z-Exemplar on Steam – a game which wears its love for the classic R-Type (mainly Bob Pape’s R-Type) on its sleeve so well that fans of the 1988 ZX Spectrum release may possibly believe this is the natural sequel to the game.

Personally I’ve been watching Z-Exemplar grow for what – to me – seems like years now, as Suminell Studios have teased out images and YouTube posts showing us what to expect. Then in mid-November word arrived that it was landing and I began to get my shooting finger ready.

It’s safe to say I wasn’t disappointed. Z-Exemplar responds like a classic side-scrolling shooter, the enemies swarm on thick and fast, it’s colourful, there’s a good choice of upgrades to cause maximum devastation and there are numerous alien worlds to conquer. Here however in Z-Exemplar you make the choices on how you wish to proceed via planets hostility and what weapons you want to take into battle. The latter option is generally vital to success as I discovered on a few levels, this really brings in the difference, instead learning the path to success it’s the strategy to achieving the goal.

Other bonuses including Zeds (currency), medals, the occasional story advancing piece of mail delivered in-game, all of which add to the evolution of Z-Exemplar. You come to realise that this isn’t actually a reboxed R-Type as you progress, this is another game; which still loves R-Type and sings back to the glory days, whilst introducing new and interesting additions.

There are a minor cluster of negatives that I would like to see perhaps approached later in a future update. I couldn’t seem to return to conquered planets to try out my new weaponry and/or boost my Zeds, I know they’re “conquered” but perhaps the option to return for a ‘clean up’ would be nice. For the life of me when I had the probes/satellites attached to me I couldn’t detach them and also, what no Steam cards or Steam achievements!?

For any side-scrolling, shooting fans Z-Exemplar needs to be added to your Steam Library, it’s a must for Retrogamers to load up and test you aging reflexes and for new gamers to enjoy a solid classic feeling game.

My review was originally posted here at Flickering Myth - http://www.flickeringmyth.com/2016/12/video-game-review-z-exemplar-on-pc-steam/

Also for those interested there is a video of me playing the game here too - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXkBfdrRG6c

DiscStorm has just hit Steam for PC & Mac from Mastertronic and XMPT Games. After a few teething issues getting into the game, which were quickly sorted out by the extremely impressive response time from the XMPT Games, I stepped into this battle arena having only caught glimpses of a few screenshots beforehand.

DiscStorm attempts to bring an 8-bit Sega Master System/NES feel to its graphics and it achieves this goal extremely well. I could believe that once again I was sat – near thirty plus years back – in front of my television playing Smash TV with Mario like toons, though admittedly DiscStorm is nowhere near as violent as Smash TV, as here we’re throwing lethal Frisbee’s in this arena.

I’d advise you to take a few moments and jump into the practice Dojo just to get a feel on the controls and movement of the game, as all be it appears to be easy it can be quite tricky and frustrating. The frustrating element I believe – for myself – lies in the fact I am using a mouse and keyboard and the first screen you meet on DiscStorm in recommends you play this game with a Gamepad, which I don’t; this I believe will hinder the average player.

The single player mode is a series of mobs fights and you can easily path these mobs and bunch them up, bringing them down with one nice throw. As you pass checkpoint your progress is saved and if you do die you return to said checkpoint, leaving the game however doesn’t save your progress within the level so you will have to grind through that level again; unless of course you completed the entire level. Something I found a bit cruel was the lack of health regens that were dropped, after you first encounter with a mid-level boss you’re given one energy bubble back, but you were then expected to proceed through the next round on a heavily depleted life force.

The multiplayer mode is unfortunately only local multiplayer, so there is currently no chance of joining up with three other random’s around the globe to lob discs at their heads. You can set up a game against bots if you – like me – have no friends, this then immediately shows how hectic the game can become with three other people playing and you realise you need some more training at this game.

The music keeps faithfully in line with the appearance of the game, you would believe that this game has been pulled from a cupboard back in the mid-1980’s. The developers certainly have their hearts firmly planted in the era of the Sega Master Syst...

Full review can be found at Flickering Myth here - http://www.flickeringmyth.com/2015/08/video-game-review-discstorm.html

Original review over at FlickeringMyth.com

Villordsutch reviews Bedlam…

bedlam headerIf you’re like me , an old mature gamer who has been around for a fair few decades watching games evolve, we’ve seen wondrous things from black and white tennis (Pong) to the monochrome colour clashing on the ZX Spectrum then onwards to the 486 basic PCs up to our beast of a gaming machine and the Next-Gen consoles. If you’re not like me however and you stepped into the world with all of this new spangled ultra-realistic graphics on your plate a) you’re very lucky, and b) you’re very unlucky for you haven’t lived. Granted these days the “Retro” scene is quite big and a lot of people flock to embrace games I’ve discarded eons ago, but you weren’t there man!

It was my gaming past which attracted me to Bedlam from the very short demo I witnessed, based upon a novel of the same name by cult Scottish author Christopher Brookmyre. This FPS game sees you take on the role of Heather Quinn (aka Athena) a colleague of Ross Baker (aka Bedlam). Heather is an overworked and underpaid scientist developing medical technology for corporate giant Neurosphere. One rainy Monday morning Heather volunteers as a test candidate for the new Neurosphere brain scanning tech – anything to get out of the office for a few hours. It’s here it all starts going wrong for Heather as she becomes trapped inside Starfire – the Sci-Fi shoot-em up she played as a teenager – with no rhyme or reason for why she’s in her and currently under fire, she picks up a gun and ploughs on in.

Within seconds of playing this game anybody that played Doom, Quake, Star Wars: Dark Forces, Duke Nuke’em, Castle Wolfenstein and of course Star Trek: Elite Forces (just) will feel right at home. That’s clearly a lot of names on the chest but it’s proud to show them and further into the game it even manages to sneak in a UT’99 Homage with the Deathmatch map Morpheus (with trolling Teamspeak teenagers too). This is in amongst the many other nods to the decades of gaming through the years you’ll see. The generation of FPS from the 90’s (and late 80’s) has been perfectly captured with pixellated blood spurts, limbs falling off and the surrounding maps. It’s clear that the designers had a love for this era and they’ve set out with a goal and they achieved it.

The missions though basic occasionally can be a bit of a challenge and make you work for you goal; from domination to destroy the towers to your basic run through the map and destroy “X” at the end. You do need to keep an eye out for the shields and health packs as the enemy’s fire does inflict significant damage; with no health regeneration you can be quite knackered without the two afore-mentioned items. Occasionally you’ll come across a bizarre moment like the UT’99 homage when I assumed I was finished a mission. You just have to remember this is part of Athena’s Neurosphere brain scan and accept it. Occasionally Athena starts talking to herself – singing too – which can be amusing and also help push the story forward.

A couple of things however bothered me about the game – one being the basic pistol seems in the opening levels to be the best weapon in the game for range and damage (minor I know), but the biggest issue I have – one that made me rage quit at one point – is the bizarre autosave the game has. In this case it saved me at one health before a mob so when I restarted the game I was shot straight away and died. Aft...

Read rest of the review here .... http://www.flickeringmyth.com/2014/12/video-game-review-bedlam.html

A fantastic blast of insanity. Singing back to the FPS-style of fun speed of UT'99 and borrowing on the fun factor of TF2 this third-person shooter is brilliant! You can drop in on Loadout! enjoy a couple of game and leave smiling whether you win or lose.

You don't need to spend a fortune on DLC's to win, but if you want to look like somebodies nightmare you may want to spend a penny or two.

Go and download this now.